Manus

Dear friends,

Time has flown - I am about to complete 6 months living in this remarkable country, and today just watched an BBC Earth Documentary about the Birds of Paradise (click here for a 1 min version), which only highlights what I will be missing when I leave.

Manus island(s) provided me the opportunity to do what a lot of us haven't done in a long time - get out of urbanization (Level 0). It was difficult to realize how accustomed to urbanization I'd become, until I went through several levels of getting away from it. I.e. Firstly think of a place that sounds exotic, that you haven't been and would be super cool to live in, let alone visit. Being in Port Moresby itself (where I'm normally based), fulfils all the above (level 1).

Then, take a plane 3 hours far north of the country to an island (Manus!)somewhat disconnected from the rest of the country, and well surrounded by water. Did I mention that over half of this island does not have cell phone reception!!! When was the last time you went to a place that had no cell phone coverage? Anyway, Manus mainland (Level 2) was great. We got to see a market, with some poor cuscus trapped in cages! So we bought one and let it free :) But I digress.

Then, after I think I'm already as far away as it gets, the next day we go with 2 guys from an NGO who are doing a demonstration project to the island close to the site. Andra island (Level 3) is a 1 hr speedboat ride away from Manus. We get to spend 2 days and a night with a community of people who are excited to welcome us into their homes, feed us a feast of lobster, yam, fruits and more, and tell us about their lives. We traverse the island (its roughly 1km across, and 1/2 km wide), learning about its history, how the king tides have shaken (but not stirred) the people, and about their concern for how climate change will continue to affect them. We spent the night in a houseboy (shack for men, visible from Andra pic) with 8 other guys from the community and talk into the night about life in general and how best we can help. FYI there is no cellphone signal at all on Andra. Unless one goes right to the southernmost tip of the island, holds a phone at a particular angle, and prays for a few mins.

On our 2nd day in Andra, we awake early to roosters' crowing, and paddle out in 'kayaks' - extremely thin vessels made out of hollowed tree trunks - super sensitive to shifts in weight, and definitely close to capsizing on many occassions. We alight after a 15 min paddle across clear turqouise waters, and are on an atoll (level 4) - a beautiful small island ~100m across and 50m wide. The view is spectacular, just the ocean around us and supremely peaceful. The kids paddling with us play around with the sea-snakes we find on the island, and we walk around for awhile before getting back on our kayaks.

Finally, before we head back to Andra and then to the mainland, we have one final stop. Naturally, we have to visit the site in which the NGO is doing their pilot project to adapt to climate change - planting coral on a sea bed so that it grows and can help resist the tides. So snorkelling in these clear waters ensues, with a view of how the coral grows while we also spend time with the kids from the community. I suppose level 5 hits me when my colleague surfaces for a breath, looks at me and remarks, 'can you believe this is a work trip?!'. Most importantly, this distance from urbanization is a really helpful way to step back and take stock of what I'm doing. To take a breath. And realize some important truths. For example, that I'm doing work that I truly enjoy, which allows me to much better navigate other ups and downs that go on from time to time. But also that while helpful (and extremely cool), its not necessary to actually go all that physical distance in order to attain level 5, its merely a state of mind that focus and internal exploration can also bring one to. Just as there are hundreds of atolls around Manus alone, so it is that there are hundreds of ways to get to level 5. All we need is to find one that works for us every now and then.

So it was that with joy in our hearts, we said a temporary goodbye to the people of Andra, made our way back to the mainland of Manus, and soon after came back home to Moresby, hoping to return to Manus (and level 5) sooner rather than later.